The Osceola times., 1887-06-18
A SHOP GIRLS Horr,
How Three Piucky Working wou..
tablished . Creditable Euterr.., -


tablished . Creditable Enterr,.. =
Notwithstanding the failure
Stewards hotel for working wome, \.
appears that there Is now in -"
cessful operation in New York Citv
institution of that kind which mig
well be copied in other cities. II Ia' tws'
started and is now carried on ly tb,..
shop girls. whose father died iesviD.
them $500 each. They went to the o,,s
and into store where their Wa,
were not sufficient to feed and clO,s'
them without encroaching on tbs;.
capital. Finally, the idea occurred y
one of them that they might beo,s,
themselves and other girls in like po,i
tions by starting a hotel especially "a,
them. We quote from the story as tod
by the most active of the energesc
trio.
There were seven hundred woms,
about the establishment where 7
worked, and we talked the matter nm
mornings and nights with every ona
that we knew. There were plenty Of
girls who lived at home with their ma.
rents, but we found fifty or more who
jumped at the chance we offered them
and were continually urging us to 20
ahead with the scheme. Finally wa
began house-hunting. We were stag.
gered by the city rents, as matter Of
course, and more than once gave IN
the whole plan in despair. We had
staked our all on desperate chance,
and the longer we looked at it the
more certain appeared the prospect Of
our loss. 1t was a woman Of whom we
hired the place, and she put the fig.
urcs as low as she could afford, and
promised us consideration in any diff.
Guilty, so long as there seemed
chance of our final success. There
wasn't money enough left to fur.
nish very extensively, but we got to.
gether the needfuls for the kitchen and
the dining-room and put up as many
beds as our last lingering dollars would
buy. The girls who had promised to
board with us were eager to come, and
most of them had women's knick.
knacks of one sort or another-tables
or chairs or pictures or bits of fancy
work-that frightened up the bare
place wonderfully and made it look
from the first week almost like home
1t was because it felt like a home that
we did not fail. There were fifty of US
the day the house opened. and the din
ing-room and the big sitting-room and
the hallway opened running over with
n flock of delighted children. To have
house to themselves where they could
do as they pleased was a luxury
that went to their heads. They ran
upstairs and downstairs, and the
homelier nook or corner was
the better they liked it. 1t was
a camping-out frolic, and picnics were
rare enough with them all. They
laughed because | forgot towels in or
dering the linen. and they laughed
when the milkman went by without
leaving the milk. They sat up till past
midnight sewing the long seams of the
sheets. They unpacked their trunks
and settler the furniture and hustled
about in that first week of confusion,
in the firm conviction that the whole
experiment was the most delightful of
jokes that had ever exploded in their
prosaic lives. Nothing discouraged
and nothin daunted them. No matter
what went wrong, they were determin'
ed to be pleased, and to find in every
mishap only the material for jest |
put the board as low as dared, afterl
had calculated the rent and the coal,
the gas and the table bills. ! left the
store, of course, and my sister did
the same. The three of us undertook TO
manage the house, and once things got
into running order we found no great
difficulty with the scheme. | inter-
viewed the grocer and the butcher and
the fish dealer, and have been experi-
menting from the start with simple
meals of wholesome variety and ma
terial. Seventy boarders was the ut
most number we had room to accom-
modate, and seventy boardcrs were on
the list before the first three weeks had
gone by. When the first month of our
experiment was over we had money in
hand for a second months rent, and
more in our pockets than If we had
stayed in the store. After looking at
that four weeks balance sheet put
aside the last thought of disaster to my
plan. 1t would work; it was working,
and patience and good health could not
help carrying it forward without fail. y
The building in which this cheerful
paragraph of the eity's history is being
written Is double brick-house,
abounding in multiplicity Of small
rooms, in quiet by-street. 1t is not
over-furnished, but it never groans at
a sewing-machine, nor frowns on a ca
nary-bird, nor tangles woman in
rules and regulations till she struggles
for fresh air. IL has reading-room
and germ of library, and it supplies
home comforts and home rest at q
charge not exceeding from IS to $3.50
per week. The latest project now un'
der discussion is TO put this working
girls enterprise on more permanent
and substantial basis by making the
whole institution a cooperative
scheme. Low-priced shares of few
dollars each. will be bought by the
women out of their savings, and II II
| seems expedient. a fund will be estab-